


he likes a boy in uniform

by lazulisong



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M, avengersfest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 15:45:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/599452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazulisong/pseuds/lazulisong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky's always been better than Steve at things like this; at pulling his collar just so and making his tie sit right. Bucky always looks sharp, a real dapper dresser.</p>
            </blockquote>





	he likes a boy in uniform

**Author's Note:**

> I am ... actually pretty sure this is like the OPPOSITE of what my requester wanted orz. But uniforms! Winterkisses! I AM SORRY.
> 
> Hilariously only one person realized this was written by me, and that was because of my author notes. I told Mer I didn't understand because this sort of fic is what I usually write when I write serious stuff. She pointed out that most of the fic I'd written this year was in a series called HAIRBALLER.
> 
> Well, when she put it like that.
> 
> Happy Christmas, [spartan-muse](http://spartan-muse.livejournal.com/)!

1.

Bucky's always been better than Steve at things like this; at pulling his collar just so and making his tie sit right. Bucky always looks sharp, a real dapper dresser. Steve always looks slouched over and small, no matter how Bucky fusses with his collar or pulls the shoulders of his jacket. He says maybe someday they'll get Steve a good suit, a tailored one, instead of buying a secondhand one, and Steve will look real good, he's sure of it.

It's nice that Bucky believes in Steve, but there's no money for a real suit, even if Bucky does one of the jobs they don't talk about, guarding warehouses or delivering things that Bucky won't look at while he's carrying it. Steve knows they could go to one of the fancy stores on Fifth Avenue and spend all day in it, finding a suit for him, and he'd still look small and slouched over. He'd rather Bucky get the suit anyway. That way he can look at it and admire the way it falls over Bucky's broad shoulders like a painting in a suit advertisement, and not feel ridiculous himself.

"A good suit won't make you look ridiculous," says Bucky. He's in his suspenders and shirt sleeves, shaving in front of the tiny mirror. Steve's sitting on the bed, watching him. His shirt sleeves are rolled up a little and Steve watches the muscles of his forearms flex and stretch.

He's drawn Bucky's hands maybe a hundred times for his classes, Bucky sitting patiently with his hand lying on their little deal table or curled around an apple. He knows them better than even his own, he thinks, has since the day they met.

"Bucky," says Steve.

"I just wish we could get you something real nice for a change," says Bucky, stubborn.

Most of their money goes toward the medicine that keeps Steve breathing okay, that keeps him out of the hospital, out of the morgue, but Steve's not going to point that out. Bucky's just going to get that look on his face again, like Steve is the one being stubborn and unreasonable. Bucky invented being stubborn and unreasonable. All the nuns would scold him for it, and Bucky would sometimes smile his sweetest smile and promise not to be so obstinate, but if you knew him well -- and Steve did -- you could see the set to his jaw that meant he was going to get his way or die trying.

"I don't want any real nice clothes," says Steve.

 

2.  
Bucky looks different, bigger, more serious, in his dress uniform. The dull khaki that should make him washed out, and would make Steve look sicker than he does already, sets off the healthy tan of his skin and the dark cocoa gleam of his hair.

Steve reaches out and smooths down a lapel, flicks off an imaginary piece of lint. "You look real nice, Buck," he says, and his voice is steady. He's proud of that, how steady his voice is. "Wish your ma could see it."

"You sound like Mrs Cohen," complains Bucky, scrubbing his knuckles in Steve's hair good naturedly. He looks at Steve again. "Hey," he says, softer, more intense, "hey, you'll get your own soon."

"Sure," he says.

 

3.  
Bucky kisses Steve goodbye, a short hard kiss that tastes sweet and fearful all at once, like he's afraid Steve won't be there when he gets back, like he's not the one leaving to be shot at by Nazis and god alone knows what else. He's going to be a sniper, but he's still going to be on the front lines.

Steve goes to mass and sits in back, staring at the crucifix and running his thumb over the rosary Bucky left at the flat. He didn't need it, where he was going. He always said that Steve had belief enough for the both of them.

 

4.  
The next time Steve sees Bucky, he's wearing red, white and blue and Bucky's wearing rags and bruises, summoning up a ghost of a smile for Steve.

"Knew you'd make it," he says, when they're marching back to the camp.

Steve didn't know he'd make it, but Bucky's faith in him lights something warm in his chest that had gone cold when he thought Bucky was dead. It keeps him warm while they march.

 

5.  
They get back to base and Bucky fights six guys to get to the showers before the water goes icy instead of merely cold, and when he comes back he's wearing someone's uniform trousers and a thin undershirt. Steve's waiting, sitting cautiously on his bunk. He's not used to how the bunks creak under him now, like if he sits too hard they're going to collapse. They have, a couple of times, and Steve's learned his lesson.

He's out of the show uniform and into his field uniform. Bucky stops, stares at him for a minute, his eyes unreadable. "It looks good on you," he says finally.

"Does it?" says Steve.

Bucky reaches forward, touches Steve's hair, the line of his jaw, sliding down his neck to the khaki collar of his uniform. His hand is still damp, and a little cold; it feels nice, Steve thinks. He turns his head to touch the palm of Bucky's hand with his mouth. It tastes like soap and smells of gunmetal. He lifts his own hand and covers Bucky's hand, holding it close.

Bucky takes a step forward, and then another step forward, and Steve pulls him down, down to the rickety cot and into Steve's arms.

 

7.  
When Bucky falls, he falls in sniper's blue, a dark spot against the endless snow.

 

8.  
When Steve falls asleep, he does it in his red, white and blue, and as the water covers him he thinks of Peggy, and of Bucky, and his last thought is _now I lay me down to sleep._

 

9.  
Steve wakes up in training clothes, and nothing's right, and nothing will ever be right again.

He's so angry, angry at this new century and everything strange and terrible and wonderful in it, and he wants to go home.

"You can't do it, you know," says Stark, fitting strange materials to him, his blunt clever hands as careful as his father's hand been. "You can't go back and change anything."

"I know," says Steve. He does know it, even though it makes his gut twist, bitter. He goes to mass and stares at the crucifix and tries to find the belief he once held so easily, so lightly. He has Bucky's rosary and he has a broken compass with a nearly destroyed picture of Peggy, who is still beautiful but changed beyond all recognition. He has a team again but he wants his partners back.

"Hey," says Stark. His eyes aren't like Howard's at all, Steve thinks. Tony Stark has steady eyes, one that see things clearly and in detail. Howard wasn't very steady at all, even when Steve knew him during the war. Tony's eyes are a little kind, too, under the cynicism. He's a good man, a good soldier, even if he won't admit to being one. Steve doesn't know how to tell Tony that's the highest compliment Steve can think of, to call Tony a good soldier. "You can't go back, but it can get better."

"Sure," says Steve, looking away.

 

10.

"You sure look handsome in that uniform," says the Winter Soldier, in his black and red and gunmetal grey, and laughs and laughs and laughs.

**Author's Note:**

> ....and then Steve saves Bucky with his lurve I guess but you can take that as you want it. Ahaha. Ha.


End file.
